Paul Vallely is a writer, broadcaster, lecturer and consultant on media and business ethics. He writes and lectures on ethics, religion and international development. He is Visiting Professor in Public Ethics and Media at the University of Chester and Senior Research Fellow at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. His biography Pope Francis – Untying the Knots is published by Bloomsbury. He writes for the New York Times, the Guardian and the Sunday Times. He has a weekly column on the Church Times on political, ethical and cultural issues. He is a director of The Tablet.

Previous employment

He has been a writer or editor on a dozen national newspapers and has produced award-winning reports from more than 30 countries on development and as a foreign and war correspondent – for which he has been commended as International Reporter of the Year in the British Press Awards, short-listed for the Orwell Prize and nominated for the UN Media Award. For the five years to April 2013 he was a leader writer for The Independent.

Associate Editor The Independent 2000-2013

Executive Editor The Independent on Sunday 1999-2000

Writer The Independent 1995-1999

Editor Sunday Times News review 1994-95

Deputy Editor The European 1994

Oped feature writer Daily Telegraph 1992-94

Editor Sunday Times Irish edition 1991-92

Assistant Editor Sunday Correspondent 1989-90

Foreign Correspondent The Times 1984-89

Other newspapers include the Sunday Telegraph, Mail on Sunday, Telegraph magazine and Yorkshire Post.

James Hanning, deputy editor of the Independent on Sunday: “What singles out Paul Vallely from the run of British journalists is his singular ability to combine ethics, philosophy and history into a lens through which to see a wide range of contemporary issues. His insightful connections and informed opinions reflect the complexity of our modern world in an accessible way to the general reader.”

Activism on aid & development

Adviser to Sir Bob Geldof 1985- current

Adviser on Aids to Sir Elton John 2010

Adviser to Bono 2005-2006

Seconded to Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa 2004-2005

Chair Catholic Institute for International relations 1995-2000

Chair Traidcraft Exchange 1995-99

Trustee Traidcraft 1992-95

Justin Forsyth, Deputy Executive Director, UNICEF: “Paul Vallely has been at the centre of all the great campaigns of the last few decades to end poverty and injustice from Jubilee 2000 to Make Poverty History – as a journalist, strategist and campaigner. He combines a rare writing talent that powerfully brings alive the stories of human suffering and endeavour with a strategic mind and political instinct for how to make change happen.”

Consultant

Paul Vallely has more than 10 years experience with 27 charities running The Independent’s Christmas Appeal which has raising a total of £2.4m and also awareness of a wide range of project, advocacy and campaigning work. Client charities include: Action Aid, Anti-Slavery International, Band Aid, Barnardo’s, The British Council, Cafod, Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales, Christian Aid, One World Action, Oxfam, Peace Direct, Practical Action, Save the Children, Survival International and Unicef . He has also provided strategic media advice to churches, charities, business and the Government for all of which he has written major reports.

Lord Stern, head of policy for the Commission for Africa and author of the Stern Review on Climate Change: “Paul Vallely has an unusual ability to distil arguments, which may sometimes be technical or complex, into clear and strong messages for those involved in the making of policy.”

Michael Grade, former chairman of the BBC: “Paul Vallely has an intimate understanding from over 20 years in the media of how the minds of journalists work in both creating and defending their output. His insights, judgement and advice are most valuable.”

David Nussbaum, CEO of WWF UK and chair of Transparency International UK:

“Over many years, Paul Vallely has turned his incisive mind to how a business can successfully combine making a profit with attending to the ethical underpinnings which make better companies vehicles to promote the wider good of society. He is one of a group of pioneering thinkers in this field, who also communicates about the opportunities he sees and the examples he comes across, facing the complex realities of our world.”

Broadcasting

Paul Vallely has appeared on BBC1 Breakfast, The Today programme, Radio 5 Live and international tv and radio stations. He has been a programme maker or panellist on BBC1’s Heaven & Earth and on BBC radio on All Things Considered, Any Questions, The Moral Maze, Vice or Virtue, Faith in Africa and the BBC World Service.

Books

With Geldof in Africa, 1985; Bob Geldof’s autobiography Is That It? (with Geldof) 1986; Bad Samaritans: First World Ethics and Third World Debt, 1990, 1991, 1993; Promised Lands: Stories of Power and Poverty in the Third World, 1992; Daniel and the Mischief Boy, (for children) 1993; The New Politics: Catholic Social Teaching for the 21st century (editor), 1999; The Times Book of World Religions (entries), 2002; A Place of Redemption: A Christian approach to Punishment and Prison, 2004; Live Aid DVD booklet 2004; The Fifth Crusade: George Bush and the Christianisation of the war in Iraq, 2004; Our Common Interest: report of the Prime Minister’s Commission for Africa (co-author,) 2005; Geldof in Africa (with Bob Geldof), 2005; Hello World: the official Live 8 Book, 2005; Live 8 Official Programme 2005; Live 8 DVD booklet, 2005; New Labour and the New World Order, in Remoralising Britain, 2008; Catholic Social Teaching and the Big Society, 2011; Pope Francis – Untying the Knots, 2013.